# Pluribus (New Vince Gilligan show on AppleTV) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, apple\ **Created:** [November 7, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659 "2025-11-07T12:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 32
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/621 "2025-12-09T03:36:14Z")
It did get a little slow in parts of the first season…but hoo boy, what a ride in seasons 2 and 3! Some masterful storytelling by Damon Lindelof. If you make it to International Assassin (S2), you’ll know what I’m talking about. And yes, Carrie Coon is amazing as Nora Durst. The whole cast is perfect actually. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/622 "2025-12-09T04:02:57Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > His accent is not the Guarani-Inflected Spanish of the Paraguayan dialect. Maybe that’s why he was not initially counted in the immunes? Nah. Yet Carol can request a Universal Translator, and then everyone speaks English. Also, if he’s to arrive this season, Manuosos needs a jet. There’s something interesting about that particular HAM frequency, and Manuosos being very thorough and keeping notes will help. I don’t even see how second-hand smoke can infect the rest (and how do they know this hip shot does the deed?) without breaking their rules of deception. Again, that notion may be entirely made up, though I reckon a couple of those with hive children might go for it. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/623 "2025-12-09T04:31:50Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > So, then, for them to be able to convert her but saying they won’t without her permission seems like an inconsistency. There may be an explanation for their inconsistency – for example, perhaps they’re lying to her now about needing her permission and they plan to convert her anyway and they have some plan to get her cells without risking a bad interaction with her that hasn’t come to fruition yet. Or perhaps they’re lying in some way about having the ability to do so (technically it’s Mr Diabate telling us and not the hive directly). But I would expect Carol to say basically “hey, you basically told me you weren’t going to need my permission to assimilate me before, why are you saying you do now?” > [@SenorBeef](#): > > That does make sense, though it is a bit wild that they think extracting a sample from someone, a temporary discomfort, is something that would be too harmful to do but removing someone’s individuality permanently is acceptable. I imagine it as a hierarchy. Spread the infection when able is at the top. Do not interfere with the agency of others is just below it. I think it’s that they don’t need someone’s consent to infect them. But the problem is, with Carol and her fellow immunes, there is an extra, intermediate step that they must take: they must first get at their stems cells. Getting at their stem cells does not infect them. Thus, consent is still required. If/when they get the stem cells and have some injection or aerosol ready? All bets are off. They can infect without consent. > [@SenorBeef](#): > > The sneaking around and “reveal” of the source of the food is completely the result of Carol’s personality and her mindset that they must be more evil/deceptive than they appear and the fact that she won’t ask any questions. I swear, I’m not singling you out. It just happens that your comments are the most… comment-ish. Good jumping off points for discussion. Anyway, yes. As I think of Carol, I think of Lisa Simpson in that _Tree House of Horror_ sketch where they’re on the alien spaceship and she thinks she’s found proof they are going to eat them, but really there is a benign explanation and Lisa was just too smart (and suspicious) for her own good. Except in this case, they really are eating _people_, it’s just that they have a good reason for it (relative to their biological imperatives) and don’t intend to eat Carol (until she dies, of course). And if she meant to make The Others cry, then mission accomplished (albeit in the previous episode). ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/624 "2025-12-09T12:05:22Z")
I don’t think this is a show that should be nitpicked for realism but if you did want to nitpick, picking fruit from trees is no different than milking a cow. Fruit trees _want_ (as much as a plant can want anything) animals to pick the fruit and carry it away. That’s why it evolved fruit in the first place. The fruit gets heavy and breaks off anyway. The tree wants you to pull the fruit off. That shouldn’t be a moral dilemma at all. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/625 "2025-12-09T12:41:30Z")
I agree that this is not the kind of show that supports nitpicking. It’s painting in much broader strokes. If that doesn’t work for some subset of viewers, well, it’s just not that kind of show. (The small nagging question in the back of my mind is about gas stations. We see lots of people driving everywhere, but no indication of how they’re staying fueled. I can see the Hive keeping some subset of stations operating for their own purposes, but then how does Carol know where to fill up? Albuquerque to Las Vegas and back is a 1000-mile round trip. That’s at least a tank and a half, maybe two tanks of gas, depending on the vehicle and mileage. How does that work?) (But again, if I let stuff like that bother me, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy what the show _is_ doing.) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/626 "2025-12-09T13:30:54Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I agree that this is not the kind of show that supports nitpicking. It’s painting in much broader strokes. If that doesn’t work for some subset of viewers, well, it’s just not that kind of show. It’s weird to say when we’re 6 episodes in, but I’m not sure about that yet. I totally understand that it could be a character study that doesn’t focus on the details, and that’s valid, so what you say may be the case. But I still have very little idea where this show is going. It could start heavily into the characterization and move onto a more plot-oriented show going forward about the struggles of the hive or Carol’s intention to lead a resistance. I don’t think we know at this point and obviously it’s very unusual 6 episodes into a show to not really be sure what kind of show it is, but I find that interesting. And I think a lot of us assume Vince Gilligan puts a lot of thought into the worlds he’s building just because he’s a very thorough and well thought out storyteller, so we may be setting the bar higher for having the details all make sense based on that. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/627 "2025-12-09T13:49:29Z")
I agree nitpicking is pointless on a show like this. It could be that the message from space is an alien terraforming project, create a virus that causes the apex species to starve itself to death and then show up to an empty planet. what’s interesting is how the survivors are reacting. I love that her big reveal that they’re eating people is ruined because that put out an informative video on the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/628 "2025-12-09T14:40:29Z")
I keep seeing online things about how this message was a precursor to an alien invasion or something. It seemed clear to me from the first episode that the message was the alien and this is how it reproduces. I would be shocked if there is some more traditional alien on its way to Earth. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/629 "2025-12-09T14:49:11Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > It seemed clear to me from the first episode that the message was the alien and this is how it reproduces. I would be shocked if there is some more traditional alien on its way to Earth. Completely agree … but first, yeah the show seems to have those thoughts as not what the show cares about. And second, if so then it is a bit maladaptive of it to kill off its host so quickly and to hamper its ability to get to effectively reproducing to other new hosts with immaterial biological imperatives. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/630 "2025-12-09T14:51:01Z")
What if the ethos is just a by-product specific to humanity being collectively networked? The alien virus was only intended to create harmony among a sentient species but unfortunately most humans have a galactically aberrant empathy for non-sapient species that now affects the whole in its most extreme form. The alien propagators would agree with Carol, “Just pick a God damned apple!” ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/631 "2025-12-09T15:18:20Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > The small nagging question in the back of my mind is about gas stations. We see lots of people driving everywhere, but no indication of how they’re staying fueled. I had a similar thought when Carol woke up in the idling police car after the wolves (coyotes?) tried to dig up Helen. I don’t know how much gas it would burn to keep a vehicle like that running all night, and of course there’s no way to know how full the tank was to start with, but I did notice that she isn’t shown filling up at any point. It didn’t _bother_ me, but I noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/632 "2025-12-09T15:28:48Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if the hive aren’t doing a shoe making elves act with Carol to keep her happy. Fill her tank in the middle of the night, turn on the electricity along her route, etc. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/633 "2025-12-09T15:32:00Z")
I mean, maybe we got it all wrong. We’ve decided that the virus doesn’t make sense because its not meant to make sense because thats not the point of the show. The thing is, the virus makes perfect sense if its a weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/634 "2025-12-09T15:35:37Z")
I’m just waiting for the real aliens to show up, possibly with Godzilla in tow. They’ve probably been dealing with these “hive mind” freaks for centuries now across several galaxies. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/635 "2025-12-09T15:51:30Z")
I interpret it as who cares why it’s this way, it just is and here is how Carol navigates this reality. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/636 "2025-12-09T16:42:26Z")
The context here is the immediate understanding that @Quimby and I had: > [@Quimby](#): > > the message was the alien and this is how it reproduces. I would be shocked if there is some more traditional alien on its way to Earth. In our understanding there is no “propagator”, not intentionally anyway. It’s more similar to Covid or influenza spreading across all sentient species. Again not the level that the show seems to care about. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/637 "2025-12-09T16:49:00Z")
I’m still thinking they may be operating on the cordyceps model - infect, assimilate, control, reproduce the message onward. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/638 "2025-12-09T17:08:58Z")
Well yeah. But you have to keep the host alive long enough to … bloom. These imperatives seem to reduce the chance of the host doing that. Unless it is just a quirk to humans as host as suggested by @Elmer_J.Fudd . But yeah. It just is and the show is about Carol and her frenemy the hive’s evolving dysfunctional relationship more than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/639 "2025-12-09T18:30:23Z")
The other possibility with the virus is, maybe the scientist screwed up? They were working for months trying to recreate it. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659/640 "2025-12-09T18:32:32Z")
They were working on testing on what it did to various animals, I don’t think there was a hint that it was difficult to synthesize. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluribus-new-vince-gilligan-show-on-appletv/1024659.md?page=33)